Madballs: BABO Invasion is a new XBLA Arcade game based off of the real boucy rubber-ball toys from the 80s. If that doesn’t tell you immediatly that this is going to be a bad game, perhaps I can. This is a bad game. There, I’ve said it. For such a funny, slightly-sickening, quirky game this could have been, it mostly just disappoints. Of the many ‘characters’ from the Madballs series of toys, only 2 are actually in the game, and if you are going to base a game off of a line of rubber-balls, at least use them in the game.

The Story is rather cliche and talks, at too great a length, of a peaceful race of sentient balls. (don’t even get me started on the possible “that’s what she said” jokes) There is some horrible stuff, blah blah blah, there is war, yada yada yada, our hero crash lands on a strange world. You must investigate, or destroy, or… to be perfectly honest… you never really quite know exactly what you are doing.

The Controls leave something to be desired. There were multiple buttons to switch weapons, and I would often do so unintentionally. There are several weapons, but they all pretty much do the same thing. None of the weapons are really exciting or too funny. Firing your weapons will often roll you backwards, also. This can annoying when you are on a small bridge, (which happens  a lot) or next to a ledge (which happens even more). You move the right stick to aim your gun, and move it often. If left alone, you will roll in the wrong direction, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

The levels you play in, and I assume there are multiple ones (even though they all look about the same) are boring, bland and otherwise typical. The only thing (visually) that I liked less than the actual levels were the enemies. More balls magically holding guns at thier sides, rolling poison balls, and round turrets aplenty.

The graphics are about what we’ve come to expect from most modern games, and nothing more. The most cinematic cutscenes are limited to pictures with words scrolling on the bottom. Don’t expect to even see detail from the bird’s eye view camera. There is a view from behind your ball, but because you move the angle so much, it can become nauseating.

The Soundtrack is about two minutes long and loops endlessly. The Few spoken lines are limited to about one or two snappy sentences per very important character. Expect to hear the same line everytime that character speaks.

There is multiplayer, so you can dislike this game with your friends. In multiplayer, you can even play as your avatar’s head. Just what I always wanted, to look down at the top/back of my avatar’s head which will explode almost immediately after being shot. Oh, wait….I don’t want that.

This game might appeal to small kids and those familiar with the toys. (the two are rarely separate.) For even a semi-serious gamer, this is a boring, muddled, and overall lame experience. Not even close to being worth the points. I recommend that you don’t get it. Don’t even waste your time with the trial. I got the full game, and deleted it after playing it twice. Save yourself the trouble.

2.5/10 rolling balls.

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